My First 56 Years

From July 1989 to October 1989 I studied for the State Boards. I had a book I bought from the nursing school that helped you study for the big test. By October I felt I was ready.
On October 22nd we traveled to Topeka, about one to two hours away from Wathena.
I arrived very nervous but feeling prepared. The room was huge with rows of tables and chairs.
They greeted us and warned us that looking in any direction other than our papers would get us kicked out of that room and we would have to wait three months before trying again.
When everyone was settled and the signal was given to start, I started with the first question and when I had finished with the entire test I couldn't believe how easy it was. I thought, “anyone off the street that hadn't spent ten months in nursing school could have passed that test!"
When we were finished with the test we were instructed to get up from the table and go outside and not to return until everyone had finished their test.
The others started filing out and some remarked how easy the test was and some said how hard the test was. Everyone got a different test. I was starting to worry that maybe the test was harder than I thought it was. It could have been full of trick questions; we were told there would be some.
I worried and second guessed myself all the way to January 1990.I received my results in the mail, then. I tore open the envelope and saw that I had passed!
After informing the members of my family and shouting and doing a little dance, I called the nursing home where I worked and told them the news, after all they had promised all the nursing students they had hired would get a .75 raise if we passed our Boards. The administrator had hired three of us from the school in Atchison and did not expect all of us to pass the first time. Our raise consisted of a thin dime. We started looking for new jobs.
"Tall" Lisa went first. She started at a nursing home on 18th St in St Joseph. That left two of us left from the school.
Having our licenses transferred from the state of Kansas to Missouri was no big deal. I called the Missouri Board of Nursing and they made a quick call to Topeka and verified I had passed the Boards, All I needed was to send them 50.00 and wah lah a few weeks later I had a board certified license to practice nursing in the state of Missouri. Up until that time I was a GPN, a Graduated Practical Nurse. Upon our graduation we received permits to practice.
On March fifth my nephew, Floy Mae's son Brian, and his wife had twin baby girls. After visiting and oohing and ahhing over the twins, I left to go and stopped at the HR, Human Resources, office at Heartland Health Medical Center, formerly known as the Missouri Methodist Hospital where Jenny and Chuck were born. I submitted my application for a nursing position there. The only reason I didn't choose to go with Heartland in the first place was because the starting pay was 6.47 an hour and we had been promised upon passing the state boards we would be paid 7.75 hour which they reneged.
Two or three weeks later I received a call from the nursing director on 2nd fl Centre about coming in for an interview.
The interview went well and I was scheduled to start April 16th.
I gave my notice to the nursing home and began my nursing career at the hospital.
Jennifer started working at MacDonald's in St. Joseph where she met a nice looking guy who worked with her named Lance. Yes, I said Lance. He was tall and good looking with broad shoulders. We went there one day when she was not working. He came in to order. I nodded my approval, what mother wouldn't like to have her daughter meet a Prince Charming named Lance. She was in love but only a junior in high school. She was seventeen after all and it was bound to happen sooner or later.
It wasn't long before she kept complaining of being sick so we took her to Belt and Mitchell to the Med Clinic.
When we lived in Highland and she was seeing the boy from Sparks, Jason, we had a "flare" up of sorts. I had worked all night at the Highland nursing home and was sleeping when Chuck came in and woke me. He said, “Jason’s here".He had this weird look on his face so I asked him, “Where’s Jenny?” He said that she was in the basement. Jenny was 14 years old at the time.
I didn't like the sound of that so I jumped out of bed and headed for the basement.
I found them putting on their clothes and thought in horror of the view that her little brother, who was eight years old, had just been given.
It was winter or early spring in 1987.the temperature outside was at or below freezing. I ordered Jason out of my house and never to return. In response to that he asked me if I would take him home because of the cold and Sparks was four or five miles away. I told him in no uncertain terms he could walk home and freeze to death as far as I was concerned.
We headed to the woods where Charles was cutting wood. He was none too pleased to hear the news about his little
girl!
On this day in 1990 here we were at the Med Clinic waiting for the antibiotics for the flu symptoms she was exhibiting.
I was sent into the cubicle with her and to my astonishment they were doing a pregnancy test! The look on her face told me everything I needed to know. We paid the bill and I escorted her out to the waiting room to her father.
In the car I broke the news to him, through tears and yelling a few chosen obscenities!
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